The Martin Taylor guitar retreat Nov ‘19 - Day 2

Richard & Martin during Saturdays workshops

I start my write up of day 2 with the jam that started on day 1. The reason I’m putting it in day 2 is that lasted further into day 2 than it did in day 1. Myself, Jacques, Jeff, Ian, Odd, John and one or two others stayed up until stupid o’ clock playing tunes together. I think we played samba pa ti at least 4 times during the weekend. Odd played Tommy Emmanuel’s back catalogue, we all jammed sultans of swing with at least 3 of us playing the famous arpeggios at the same time (or trying to after 5 peroni, in my case) and we eventually exhausted ourselves at around 2:30am. The late night jamming was one of the best parts of the weekend for me as I’ve missed having the opportunity to play with others like that, learn from other players and generally have fun playing music and as a solo guitarist, having someone else play the tune so I don’t have to 😄

So then, to day 2 proper. Having seen that breakfast was at 7:30am I set my alarm and panicked when I woke up thinking that everyone would be downstairs on the dot but turns out it was just me and 4 other people who had the same idea. I sat with Michael and his wife Pam from Colorado and Bill from Alaska and got a bit of insight into life in the US, especially about the wildlife over there. Michael told us about the guitar camp he runs at his home and the players he’s brought in - Tommy Emmanuel & John Knowles among others. Made me think I should be doing more to facilitate that kind of thing over here but my house isn’t big enough. I think real estate differs between here and the US.

After breakfast I had an hour or so to get myself sorted and do a bit of practice. My mind was already on the evening performance and what song I could play with Martin and maybe Richard too. For once, the perfect song came straight to me. I’d heard Tommy Emmanuel, Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo’s version of Djangology only a few days previously and having taught it to three lads at high school I thought it would be perfect. I hadn’t played it in a long time though so I had to figure out what the melody was again and remember the chord sequence. Once I’d got the first parts of the melody together it all pretty much fell into place. I asked both Martin and Richard at different points in the day if they would like to play it with me and both said the same thing, “How does that go again? (I hum first bar of melody) Oh yeah! No problem!”. So that was organised and semi-practised on my own before the first workshop at 10am and I could concentrate on other things.

Our first workshop on day 2 was to go over All Of Me once more and try and add to it. I had a bit more of an idea of how it went by this time so was a little more comfortable. The workshop looked at movement between chords or even movement within the same chord and also how to use the melody as a basis for an improvised solo. I think this idea is what most guitarists lose sight of when faced with playing a solo. It’s not really our fault but also it is our fault at the same time. I can’t speak for all guitarists but a lot of us picked up the instrument as a beginner with the intention of playing ‘that solo from…’ or being able to impress people with some flashy party piece. In my case that wore off pretty quickly when I realised that once my friends had heard me play something once they weren’t really interested in hearing it again, unless of course they were guitarists too and wanted to learn what I’d played and start the cycle over again. Back to the point though, the melody is the part of a song that people remember and can usually hum or whistle (n.b. Please don’t whistle the tune when I’m playing it at a wedding. I once did a wedding breakfast where someone was whistling along the entire hour and a half, not only that but they were also slightly out of tune 😩) so a guitar solo should, at the heart of it, be something memorable and hummable (is that a word?). We broke off into splinter groups during the workshop to play the tune together and trade solos. Nothing fills you with fear quite like when it gets to your turn and Martin Taylor walks up to listen!

After lunch where I sat opposite Martin and asked him about how he first got to play with Stéphane Grappelli (same as how I get most of my gigs, someone drops out and you get the call), Richard took us through playing with thumb independence. This is something I’ve done for almost 20 years but that doesn’t mean it’s not interesting when someone else talks you through it. You get an insight into how others first got involved with it, what songs they would practise to get it right and also how they still practise it even though they’ve played that way for 40+ years. Techniques like thumb picking need a lot of practise just to keep consistent and so playing the basics with Richard was like a refresher course and a reminder to not let the basics slip. After a break, Richard took it up a notch with his cascading harmonics workshop, something I’ve dabbled with and play in a couple of Chet Atkins & Tommy Emmanuel songs that I’ve learned and my version of White Christmas I arranged around 15 years ago. During this workshop I had to sneak out for my on-to-one with Martin where I asked him his thought process for soloing. It was an answer that had already really been answered that morning during the workshop but I wanted to see if I could get any deeper into it. Martin explained about how he thought about notes in relation to the root i.e. the 6th or 9th sound ‘sweet’ so aim for the kind of note you want to hear. This point was extended on on day 3 so I’ll come to that later.

In the evening we walked the short journey to the local pub where we had pizzas and Guinness. I never used to like Guinness so why I do now is anyone’s guess! Great to sit and chat in different surroundings and not really speak about guitar for a couple of hours although the performance was weighing on my mind….

Richard & Martin perform ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ during the evening concert

We walked back at around 9pm and went straight into the smaller room where the workshops had taken place where the performance area had been set up for that evening. I spotted Richard on his own practising and there were only 4-5 people in the room so I took the opportunity to ask if we could play Jerry’s Breakdown together. “I think I’m playing that with someone else” he said. “No, just here, me and you” I replied, purely because I wanted to have said I’d done it. Richard kicked off the intro and I joined Igbo away with the rhythm part. As he was nearing the main riff he asked if I wanted to play the lead part. As I had no time to think about it I said yes and launched straight in. Because of the last minute nature of this jam I had no time to think or get nervous about playing such a ridiculously hard tune with one of the worlds best finger pickers so I just took it as it came, which is always good to be honest. The best times I’ve had in my life playing guitar is when I’ve let go of all pressure, even when there is loads. My university guitar exam for example - I’d spent weeks finishing my composition and had left no time to practise the two instrumental songs I was playing, Manhattan by Eric Johnson and Bye Bye Blackbird by Chet Atkins. I was incredibly nervous before the exam but while sat outside the exam room I suddenly decided that it wasn’t worth being nervous, I either knew these songs or I didn’t. Also I didn’t know what was coming up in the sight reading and scales so it wasn’t worth worrying about. I felt the stress disappear and honestly, I have never played those songs better as I did in that exam. I take that approach these days at weddings; I can let the stress of playing a bridal entrance destroy me or I can ignore any negative thoughts and trust that I know how to play it. Anyway, back to the jam..

We were rattling through Jerry’s Breakdown and drawing a small crowd when in the second verse Richard started harmonising the melody I was playing! If you know the song then you’ll know how crazy it is and to hear a part I’d never heard before on top of what I was playing, well I very nearly stopped! We got to the solo section and I called Richard to take it, and take it he did. I was half expecting Chet Atkins’ solo to come out note for note but what he played was anything but that. It was a myriad of finger picking licks and arpeggios played in a way that I can only aspire to. After the solo I was expecting the final verse but Richard played the lead in to the solo section again and looked at me…the following 30 seconds or or so are very foggy but I think they went well 😄. We played the final verse again complete with harmony part and nailed the ending together. I couldn’t believe I’d got through it, never mind played it well and we laughed and shook hands. So that was the song I hadn’t planned on playing…..

The song I mentioned earlier, Djangology, was still there to be played and as soon as other players started performing properly for the evening concert I started to think about it and get a bit nervous. Thankfully Jeff was on before me playing one of his comedy songs he does so well (video below) and that loosened me up a bit.

The time came eventually to play and I sat between Martin & Richard and suddenly the realisation kicked in….”How the hell did I get into this position?”. You can see for yourself how it went below. The highlight of the video for me is the first lick that Martin plays after the melody. I remember thinking “ooh, that was nice!” and then just about remembering I was still playing. Going third out of three solos wasn’t planned, it just happened that way and as they were both playing theirs I was wondering what I was going to play in mine. I couldn’t match either of them for licks, tricks or outright musicality so I thought sod it, just play what sounds right. There was a lot of information given on this subject during the workshops but in the moment I forgot EVERYTHING that was said. I did manage to play a little chromatic line in their that I didn’t know I was going to play but managed to hear what the last note should be before I played it. See if you can spot it! Finally, the best part for me was Martin carrying on at the end when I’d decided we were finished but as you can see in the video I only really gave the nod to Richard. Sorry Martin! 😁

After that was over I was exhausted. The feeling of stress being lifted like that after a performance is a feeling I never get tired of. Other performances that night included playing one of Martin’s tunes that was recorded by Tommy Emmanuel, Chas playing ukulele and singing George Formby and Martin & Richard playing Honeysuckle Rose. More jamming occurred after the concert in the hotel foyer but we didn’t last as long as the previous night. I think it was only 1:30am this time when we eventually gave up…